Early bird: Talk Talk "It's My Life" Remix & Upscale

Update: Added lyrics as captions (press ㏄ button to show them).

Original post: A change of tempo this week (literally!) as I present a 40th-anniversary tribute remix and remaster of Talk Talk's "It's My Life", creating a live performance "that never was", by blending in live audio elements and AI upscaled visuals, to honour the band's authentic spirit and aversion to miming, in a version that aligns more closely with what might have been their original artistic intention for this classic (then mimed) performance – and all to reintroduce the iconic song to a new generation.

✍️ Talk Talk’s "It’s My Life" (January 1984) was written by the indefinable Mark Hollis (who sadly passed away in 2019 at just 64), and Tim Friese-Green (still making groundbreaking music today – https://www.timfriesegreene.co.uk ). In my humble opinion it is one of the most precious songs ever recorded. For many who grew up in the 80s it played a part in defining our teenage years, and with it's 40th anniversary approaching, a tribute felt right. 🎂

📺 The remix plays to a modest AI upscale of what I think is Talk Talk’s best visual performance of it https://youtu.be/DmKXsEEEAWw blended with live audio performance bits; The original music video famously featured Hollis with his mouth closed throughout; a protest against artists miming during "live" performances. Ironically this is something they were likely forced to do in this otherwise fascinating TV appearance, due to insufficient TV studio gear. 🤐

🎙️ To resolve this I blended in parts of Hollis’s wondrous live vocals – often indistinguishable from his studio work – plus live acoustic guitar melodies and synth pads, all AI separated from other gigs, to lend the single and this classic 1984 appearance on Italy’s Popcorn show that feeling of actually being “live” that it seems the band might’ve wished for on the day. 🎸

✇ For the audio I went back to the original 24-track studio masters digitised recently by an unknown engineer https://youtu.be/S59QEY2umoU, adding prominence to elements I personally loved from the song (such as Ian Curnow’s Roland Jupiter-8 “animal” 🐘 sounds and airy Oberheim OB-X synth lead, or Paul Webb’s driving bassline), and detailed in the video description. 🎹

🎼 The above was all done in an effort to create the ultimate audio-visual “live” version of the song that also stands on its own as a single – one that I hope its creators would be pleased with, and that I hope you enjoy as my small tribute. 🎈

🎛️ Thank you for stopping by, and for reading me ‘talk talk’ about a song I originally bought back in the day (the CD of which I still have here with me) that helped shape ‘(it's) my life’ and lead to decades of songwriting my own music (http://euromantix.com), at times creating remixes, and on this occasion, coming full circle. 💿

✨ I should finally note that my instinct is to not touch something that is already perfection, but at the same time I feel Talk Talk and Hollis are hugely underrated, and so by creating a fresh version of the track with more of what I love in it, in a genre that is used to remixes and remasters anyway, the hope is it may introduce the song and band to a brand new audience, who can in turn experience the magic that lies inside its four beautiful minutes.

Video: https://youtu.be/8Nn7EtwtSJY

A full list of the changes is in the video description with timestamps.

Thank you for your ongoing support of these retro passion projects 🙏

Your friend in retro, Perifractic